Cheshire
by Fire Red Fox Queen
Summary: The mad Cat destroys all in its path, leaving a bloody trail behind it. Following on its tail is August Vos, police inspector/detective. Erica Marienkafer is a college student who just wants to go back to her normal life. Can the Fox and the Ladybug stop the wild Cat or will they fall victim to its madness? Warning: massive gore. OC story.
1. Prologue

**So...I'm not sure where this came from. I think I just wanted to write a gore scene, because that's pretty much all this is. It's not really for the faint of heart of the weak stomached, yeah? Read at your own risk?** **I have more to this, but I'm not too sure on an actual plot line yet. This is kind of almost a prologue, so I might name it as such.**

* * *

Erica gripped her phone tightly in her hand as she desperately choked down the urge to vomit. Mere inches from her face, Erica's would-be mugger gurgled and twitched as he quickly disintegrated at the throat. She could only watch in horror as his skin peeled away from his face, exposing muscle and bone.

But the most painful thing were his eyes. Those bloodshot brown eyes were staring at Erica, begging her to save him. They had locked onto her, suffocating her for what had to be the longest instant she had ever experienced. After what seemed like an eternity, those pitiful eyes glazed over and the now exposed bones crumbled to the ground onto what looked horribly like ground meat.

Bile rose in the back of Erica's throat, but she forced it down when she saw the cause of her attacker's grisly demise. Toxic green eyes glowed in the lowlight of the alley, the little light available revealing a display of alarmingly numerous sharp teeth.

A strange high-pitched chuckle broke the silence. Erica flinched, her stomach rolling unpleasantly at the sound. "It's so gross, isn't it? They all turn into piles of hamburger meat, just like she did." Another high chuckle led to a full-on laughing fit, impossibly exposing even more teeth than before. It was somehow more terrifying than watching a man literally fall apart in front of her. Erica didn't even register her phone slipping free of her numb fingers and cracking sharply against the blood soaked ground. Leaning heavily against the wall behind her was all she could do to keep from collapsing straight to the ground.

Eventually the laughing faded back into disturbed giggles as those sickeningly toxic colored eyes turned back on her. "Good night~!"

That was the last thing she heard before her head collided with the rough brick wall and everything snapped to black.


	2. Waking Nightmare

Something sharp was poking Erica in the cheek, irritating her into wakefulness. A throbbing pain bloomed in the back of her skull as she became conscious. There was something sticky on her face and in her hair and her pillow was disgustingly squishy for some reason. She pushed herself upwards onto her elbows, groaning as light touched her eyelids. Despite her reluctance to face the light, she opened her eyes.

All of a sudden, the events of last night came rushing back to her as she took in the red mess in front of her. This time, there was no holding it back. Erica heaved violently just to the side of the body, eyes stinging with tears from the stench. How had she not noticed that smell before, something akin to a whole butcher house going rotten? The thought of it just made her choke and quake as the last remaining contents of her stomach spilled out onto the ground.

She shakily tried to climb to her feet. She had to get away from this place, from this stench, from what happened. Her weak knees couldn't support her weight and she dropped right back into the bloody pile. And it suddenly hit Erica that she had been _sleeping_ on top of a _dead body_. A _bone_ had been poking her in the _cheek_. It was blood all over her face, no, all over _her whole body_.

An shrill scream ripped its way out of her throat as she threw herself as far away as possible. She tried to wipe away the blood covering her arms, but it just wasn't going away. She whimpered through thick tears, smearing the blood more and more with her efforts. Black hazed in at the rim of her vision, threatening to knock her unconscious at this unholy place again.

Erica forced herself to slow down her breathing and attempted to calm down. It wasn't working quite as well as Erica would have normally liked, but it kept the black haze at bay. Gulping air down through her mouth, she tried to grasp the next step. What should she do? Police, right, she should call the police.

Her quaking hands took a couple of attempts to search her coat pockets. Empty. Pants pockets, then. Nope, not there either. Erica whimpered again, casting a desperate glance around her in hopes that her phone had fallen out of her pocket when she backed away from the remains. No such luck.

She eyed the pile of red mulch and shuddered. If it was possible, Erica never wanted to get within 100 miles of that ever again. But it wasn't possible, so she unsteadily stood again, using the nearby building as a crutch. Step by trembling step, she edged closer.

And there it was, laying in the puddle of blood right next to the remains. She sharply sucked in a deep breath before slowly bend down to pick it up. Her hand missed on the first try and she struggled to get a grip on it. But she eventually got her fingers fitted around it and lifted it out of the blood. Without even taking a second to even breathe, she spun and limped several feet away.

Only when she was a good distance away did Erica gasp for air. She wiped away the blood on her phone the best she could onto her jeans and inspected it for damage. Her stomach sank when she saw that the screen was spiderwebbed with cracks. Hoping against hope that it was still functioning, she pressed down the power button.

When the screen came to life, Erica was so relieved that she almost dropped it again. She attempted to quickly type in those three little numbers that everyone knew. Frustrated after a few failed tries, she finally got the combination right and put the phone on speaker.

"911, what's your emergency?"

"H-hi, yes, this is Erica Marienkafer, and I was attacked last night. I-I'm still here at the scene."

"Okay, just keep calm. What's your position?"

Erica screwed her eyes shut as she tried to recall the path that she took home last night. "I'm in an alleyway off of Wilson Ave. It was near the intersection with Georgia St., I think," she replied uncertainly.

"I'm sending someone your way now. Just stay where you are and don't move, okay? It's really important that you don't remove yourself from the scene."

"Okay," she whispered before hanging up. She slowly dragged her body back to the ground to wait for the police to arrive.

That pounding headache that Erica somehow managed to forget about returned twice as urgently now that she was calming down. Groaning, Erica lowered her head onto her knees and closed her eyes.


	3. August

**So personally, this chapter is one of my favorites so far despite the fact that it is very sloppily written (and bad explanations for muggings are bad). But it's bad because I have absolutely zero idea how a situation like this would play out. (Probably with a lot more police involved, for one.) Also because I have no idea about police hierarchy. I hope it didn't come out too terrible? And even though Erica probably has a concussion, I didn't have her end up in a hospital. I'd have no idea how to continue from there if I did. I'm still debating on whether or not to go with the concussion. There's potentially fun things to do with that, but I'm not even entirely sure how this story's even gonna play out yet. So I'm just gonna wait and see. Anyway, sorry for rambling.**

* * *

"Vos! We have another Cheshire case over in an alleyway off Wilson and Georgia. How fast can you get there?"

"Fifteen minutes. Has a squad already been sent to secure the area?" Inspector August Vos asked, pinning his phone to his shoulder as he pulled on his jacket.

"Yeah, they're beginning preliminary questioning on the witness now."

August paused. "There's a survivor?"

"Yes, apparently."

Unsure of how to take the piece of information, he filed it away and simply replied, "I'm on my way."

When he arrived on scene, he was met with a rather young, unfamiliar face. "Give me a rundown of the situation," he said, casually flashing his badge while focusing on the horror film-like scene beyond the yellow tape.

"It's a typical Cheshire attack," the young officer replied promptly, holding the tape up and away for August to duck under. "The remains are too mangled and disintegrated to identify. An autopsy will be attempted, but I wouldn't expect too much. It's pretty obvious what the cause of death was. Usually, it'd be impossible to determine the time of death in this situation as well, but the witness was able to supply that to us this time."

August had forgotten all about the survivor. Jerking his attention away from the pile of meat in front of him, he fixed his attention on the young officer. Seriously, this kid had be fresh out of college, light freckles tracking their way across his pale face with almost equally pale ashy blonde hair.

Even though August (who had seen dozens of Cheshire's victims before) felt sick to his stomach, this kid...Officer Geoffrey, it seemed, looked perfectly fine. Completely impassive. Was this the effect of so many gory horror films nowadays? He shook the thought away. It made him feel old and this definitely was not the time for such stupid thoughts.

"And when was the time of death?"

"Around 11:30pm last night, sir."

"And where is this witness?"

"She's being attended to by the EMTs right now as we speak. You actually passed her on the way in here."

"Thanks," August replied, quickly escaping the darkness of the alley and the smell of decay. He spotted the ambulance just outside the mouth of the alleyway, a policeman interrogating a girl as she was inspected for injuries.

"I'll take over from here," August said firmly to the interrogating officer. "If I gain anything new, I'll fill in those details later." The officer looked like he was going to protest, but instead chose to step away, irritated. "Thanks."

He bent down cautiously, inspecting the girl in front of him carefully. She was shuddering hard like a leaf caught up in a storm. Her eyes avoided him, looking resolutely at the blacktopped road. She pulled her shock blanket closer to herself almost subconsciously.

August was never very good at dealing with traumatized witnesses. Unsure of how to proceed, he cleared his throat awkwardly, hoping to get the girl's attention. The girl flinched at the sound, which August interpreted as acknowledgement of his presence.

"My name is August Vos. I know that it might be hard for you, but I'm going to need you to answer some questions for me, okay?"

The girl's steel grey eyes sharpened as her head snapped up to glare at him. Gone was the shaking, scared girl that had greeted him. The change was so sudden and unexpected that August shifted backwards a bit in surprise. "Haven't I given you enough information already?!" she screeched, tears forming at the corners of her eyes. "Just ask that other officer! He's been asking me for twenty minutes now! What else do you want from me?! I just want to go home and wash away this blood…" she cried, voice trailing off softly as her gaze dropped once again, tears falling freely down her blood-stained cheeks.

"I know," August assured her softly. "Just five more minutes, okay? Then I'll have someone take you home. Think you can handle talking to me for five minutes?"

The girl nodded slowly.

"Good. Now, first off, what's your name?"

"Erica Marienkafer."

"Okay, Erica, what were you doing before you were attacked?"

"I was walking home from the library. I worked a closing shift last night."

"Now, what exactly happened?"

"I was cutting through that alley because I thought it would be a quicker way to get back to my apartment. T-this guy approached me, I think he might've been homeless? Anyway, he was trying to steal my phone, which was in my hand. We struggled, and he managed to pin me against a building. But the next thing I know, he disintegrated right in front of me."

"So that's the victim this time?" A silent nod.

"What time was this?"

"I think it was approximately 11:30pm." Right. So her story was consistent at this point, at least.

"Do you remember anything about Cheshire?"

The girl thought quietly for a moment. "Any details are fine, even small ones."

She shook her head. "All I remember is that his eyes are an acid green and his teeth were sharp. It was too dark to see anything else."

"No visible scars or injuries or other defining features? No birthmarks?"

"Not that I could see."

"What about height?" A moment passed.

"Around my height?"

"Male or female?"

"I think male, but it was hard to see and his voice was pretty high when he was talking."

Nothing new, huh? This much could be seen from Cheshire's Black Cat days. In fact, even hair color was known from images and video clips. August had hoped that this girl might've noticed something distinctive, but it was a bust after all. "Thank you for being patient, Erica. I'm sorry you had to deal with all this."

She shook her head. "Can I go home now?" she asked quietly. "I'd really like to take a shower."

August climbed to his feet with a sigh. "Yeah, you can go home now. If you remember anything else, please contact us immediately. Officer Geoffrey can give you a ride back."

The girl didn't reply. She merely climbed shakily to her feet and followed as August walked back towards the crime scene, stopping a few feet away from the tape.

"Hey, Geoffrey!" August called to the kid, who happened to be standing over the remains again. Weird kid. What was there to look at? How old was this kid, anyway? "Think you can take the witness home?"

The kid fixed his dull hazel-eyed stare on the older detective for a second, an unreadable look on his face. Then a wan smile worked its way onto his features, obscuring those strange eyes. "Sure."

As Geoffrey passed by, August couldn't help a strange chill that passed over him. _Weird kid._


	4. The Sleeping and the Sleepless

Erica sat in the back of the car in silence, hating the feeling of stickiness covering every inch of her. Hating how her hair matted together uncomfortably. Hating the tremor that wouldn't go away. Especially hating the dull throb at the back of her skull. The EMT told her that she was almost definitely concussed and that she should go get scanned at a hospital, but she knew she wouldn't go. All she had to do was avoid running around and hitting her head on things, right? There wasn't much else she could do. She'd just have to ask her roommate to keep an eye on her for the time being.

"Pretty soon, we're going to be turning off onto Elm. Where do we go from there?" the officer in the front of the squad car asked, flashing his greenish-hazel eyes into the rearview mirror for a second.

"Take a left onto 5th. My building is the third one down on the right," Erica told him.

"Got it."

A heavy silence fell back over the car and Erica feverishly anticipated that shower she had spent about an or so longing for. That and a nap. She almost sobbed in relief to see her apartment building appearing in front of her. Her seatbelt was unbuckled and she was out the door the instant that the car pulled to a stop. She paused. "Thanks for the ride," she said, kind of only halfway meaning it. Her mind was focused on solely returning to normal.

"Just be careful of feral cats in the future," the officer replied. He had a strange look on his face, one that Erica wasn't sure how to interpret. She just nodded before spinning on her heel and fleeing into the building.

It was only until she was almost in the building that she remembered that walking into a building covered in blood was probably not a good idea. There wasn't much she could do about it, though. She just readjusted her blanket on her shoulders to cover as much as she could. Then she ducked her head and sped through the lobby towards the stairs.

A couple people looked over at her strangely, but thankfully she somehow seemed to avoid notice. She wrenched open the door to the staircase and hastily shut it behind her. The instant she did, exhaustion hit her like an ocean wave, almost knocking her over. Her grip on the blanket loosened as she took her first reluctant step onto the stairs.

Sighing, Erica began her long, slow trek up to the sixth floor.

* * *

The warm water was like heaven against Erica's skin. Erica tilted her head back and just let the water rush over her. With the water bill being so expensive, she usually didn't indulge like this, but she figured that she deserved this much at least. Rust-colored trails streaked down her skin as the dried blood was slowly being washed away.

Her eyelids slid shut as she savored the sensation. Ah, she was so tired…

No! Erica forced her eyes back open, steadying herself against the shower wall. She couldn't pass out here. She couldn't fall asleep until her roommate was back. Snagging the shampoo off the rack, Erica sudsed her hair with a vengeance only to cry out and wince as her fingers dug into the sore area on the back of her skull.

After that, she proceeded more carefully, gently squeezing the suds from her hair and deciding to forgo conditioner for now. Instead, she put her effort towards viciously scrubbing at her bloodstained skin. She scrubbed it so hard that it was red in places. Still, the blood was gone and Erica felt much better.

Since she still felt kind of cold, she was reluctant to leave the shower. But she didn't earn enough money to stay in there forever. Groaning, Erica shut off the water and toweled herself dry.

Several minutes later found her sitting in front of the TV in the living room, desperately fighting sleep. She nodded off several times only to jerk herself awake. Hopefully Antigone would be back from her morning run soon. It was Saturday, so she should be returning soon…?

Erica attempted to watch the movie playing on the TV screen, but it was no good. She needed sleep. Her eyes slid shut with feeling of finality just as she heard the door click open.

"Huh? Erica, are you there?" Antigone called. The faint sound of keys hitting the kitchen counter top reached her ears, so Erica forced her eyes open one last time and staggered to her feet.

"Yeah," she struggled to say. "Can I ask a favor?"

"Sure. What do you need?" Antigone asked distractedly, digging around in the fridge for a snack.

"Can you wake me up very couple of hours? I have a concussion and I'm very tired." Somehow she managed to get the request out properly on the first try. She'd have felt proud if she wasn't so tired.

Backing out the fridge so fast that it should've given her whiplash, Antigone's earth brown eyes were blown wide with shock, but she didn't argue. "Fine. Yeah, I can do that."

Without so much as a nod this time, Erica shuffled over to her room, almost tripping over the threshold. She was asleep before she even hit the mattress.

* * *

August Vos, on the other hand, was sleepless. He paced around his apartment, as if doing so would clarify something. As always, there was nothing to think about. Couldn't be helped. There was usually nothing felt of the bodies to actually analyse. Pulling information from them was impossible.

Running a frustrated hand through his hair, he sighed. As he thought, the witness was the only one who could've provided more information, but she ended up not seeing much at all. "Dammit!"

He eyed the white box on the counter a few feet away. Before his mind could even register the movement, he had gotten up and grabbed the box. Staring hard at small carton, August knew he should quit. He even hated smoking. But here he was, slipping a cigarette between his lips and flicking a lighter on.

August hated himself.


End file.
